


Fighting fire with a bubble bath and an open heart

by sugarandspace



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: (for a good cause), Arson, Bubble Bath, Childhood Trauma, Demons, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Insecure Magnus Bane, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-24 21:34:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22244809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarandspace/pseuds/sugarandspace
Summary: Their relationship is still new, and sometimes Magnus can't quieten the voices that keep telling him that Alec will realise who he is - what he is - and decide that it's too much.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 23
Kudos: 273
Collections: Favorite Malec Stories





	Fighting fire with a bubble bath and an open heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [intezaarlily](https://archiveofourown.org/users/intezaarlily/gifts).



> First fic of 2020! Took me almost two weeks because I'm working on a longer thing at the moment. That thing is dark and angsty, so I asked on tumblr if people could send me sweet prompts. Lily asked for "Malec + hand kisses" and I started writing a short and soft fic. It seems like I'm wired to write angst at the moment because this is what I ended up with. Thank you for the prompt Lily and I hope you like this!! 💙

It’s dark by the time they can get back to the house. The police have finally left but the tape at the front door is a bold reminder that they have been there. 

“It’s good that they finished the investigations before it got dark,” Isabelle says from his left and Magnus has to agree. Three victims is already too much for one day.

“Has the situation changed?” Alec asks from next to his sister, the question aimed for Magnus.

Magnus scans the house with his magic. It’s a wooden two-story house in a row of many similar ones, a perfect family home before last night. Now it serves as a constant reminder of the horrors it had to hide to the other families in the neighborhood.

Just as he expected, there’s a nest of demons in the attic and no other living beings in the house. The only difference to this morning is that the demons are awake, able to move now when the sun has set.

“Nothing has changed,” Magnus replies. “I can sense six of them. They are all in the attic.”

“And we can’t just go in and kill them?” Isabelle asks. She’s a smart woman and Magnus knows that she knows the answer already. Magnus wishes there was another option too.

“I’m afraid not,” Magnus replies. “Their energy is strong. The nest they’ve built to the framework of the house would always lure in more of their kind.”

“Do it,” Alec says, his sure words that of a leader. 

Magnus nods and rolls his sleeves before focusing on the house in front of them. He mutters a slow incantation and moves his fingers, and soon bright flames start to rise from the bottom of the house. Magnus lifts his hands up and the flames follow, growing higher and higher and covering more and more of the outer layer of the house. Soon the heat breaks a big window on the front of the house and the flames slip inside. 

More windows break and the loud noises alert the people in the neighboring houses. Their windows light up and people scream as they see the destruction, but they can’t see the three figures on the sidewalk, their glamours making sure of that. 

Magnus makes sure that the flames won’t spread to the other houses, keeps them controlled even as they cover every inch of the house in front of them. There’s no way for the demons to escape now, trapped as they are in the burning house.

Magnus keeps doing it, ignoring the people gathering to the sidewalk close to them. He’s sweating and he can’t pinpoint the exact reason. The heat from the flames, the exertion, or the memories of who taught him this particular spell? It doesn’t matter, Magnus tells himself, and focuses on the task at hand.

They can hear sirens in the distance but they are far away enough that they don’t cover the screeches coming from the attic. The demons are dead, so Magnus cuts the spell.

The house is still covered in flames but they have lost their intensity. It should be easy for the firemen to take control of the situation when they arrive. The house is utterly destroyed, beyond fixing, but it’s a good thing. It’s what they came here to do. The house was too contaminated for anyone to safely live there. 

Magnus’ breathing is slightly heavy as he lowers his hands. He looks to his side when he feels a hand on his back and smiles a reassuring smile to Isabelle, who’s looking at him with concern.

“You alright?” Isabelle asks.

“It takes more than a little fire spell to tire me out,” Magnus replies confidently. He’s not lying, when it comes to the magic he’s completely okay. When it comes to things beyond that though, he wants nothing more than to leave the place and go home. “Shall we leave?”

The Lightwoods nod and Isabelle moves her arm away to give Magnus room to create a portal. It takes them right outside the Institute.

“Goodnight,” Isabelle says with a smile before she starts climbing the stairs.

Magnus and Alec say their goodbyes to her and Alec comes to stand in front of Magnus, taking his hand to his slightly bigger one.

“Is it okay if I come to yours tonight?” Alec asks and the question makes Magnus smile. He’s not sure which one he’d prefer at the moment, being left alone to ponder what happened tonight or to have something as lovely as Alexander to distract him from it, but in the past weeks they’ve been dating Magnus has learnt that he’s not very capable of denying the Shadowhunter anything when he looks at him with his hazel eyes full of hope.

“I’d love nothing more,” Magnus replies and creates another portal, never letting go of Alec’s hand.

They step out of the portal in Magnus’ living room.

“I don’t know about you, but I’d love a hot bath right now,” Magnus says as he notices that the smell of smoke has clung to his clothes and hair.

“Okay,” Alec replies. “I can make us something to eat while you do that.”

“I was hoping you’d join me,” Magnus says, knowing that Alec’s words weren’t born from not wanting to join, but more so from not expecting to be asked. His thoughts are proven right when Alec speaks next.

“You want me to join?” He asks. “You want me to take a bath with you?”

“Yes,” Magnus replies surely. “If you’re comfortable with that.”

“Okay,” Alec says, nodding a little. “Okay, yeah. A bath sounds good.”

Magnus hides the smile brought on by Alec’s stumbling response by turning away and starting to walk to the direction of the bathroom, flicking his hand to start the bath. They can hear as the water starts running. 

Magnus doesn’t look back to see if Alec is following, but as he reaches the bathroom and hears the door click shut behind him, he knows he did. Magnus gives him a small smile as he turns to the bath and studies the bottles on the edge of the tub.

“Sandalwood or coconut?” He asks, referring to the bubbles he’s going to add.

“Sandalwood,” comes Alec’s instant reply.

“Excellent choice,” Magnus says and pours a generous amount into the water. It’s warm enough that it’s making the temperature in the room rise, and Magnus knows it will be able to make even Alec relax.

After that Magnus starts stripping off of his clothes, tossing them to the hamper in the corner of the room. He looks at Alec and sees that he’s looking at him too, and a slight flush rises to his cheeks as he sees that Magnus notices him. Magnus knows it has nothing to do with the steam from the tub.

“You can leave your clothes on the counter,” Magnus encourages him. “I can turn them clean for you for when you have to go back to the Institute tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Alec replies. “Thank you.”

Magnus smiles at him and then pointedly looks away, taking off the rest of his clothes and giving Alec privacy to take off his. He only looks back at him when he’s sitting in the tub and sees that Alec is placing the last article of clothing on the neat pile on the counter. As he turns to look at Magnus he looks a bit lost, like he doesn’t know what he should do next.

Magnus helps the poor man and moves back on the tub, obviously making room for Alec to sit in front of him. “Get in before you get cold.”

Magnus gives his hand to Alec so he can balance himself as he gets to the tub, and waits until Alec sits down to bring his arms around Alec’s waist, pulling his somewhat tense body closer to him. It’s far from the first time they’ve seen each other naked but it’s the first one without real intent, the only goals being getting clean and relaxing. It’s a new situation for Alec, so Magnus gives him time to get used to it.

Magnus notices when it happens, Alec’s body relaxing where it’s laying against him. His head rests more comfortably over Magnus’ collarbone, and he sinks a few more inches into the warm water. The hold he has on Magnus’ hands turns more relaxed as well - more natural.

“It feels nice, doesn’t it?” Magnus asks and turns his head slightly to leave a kiss to Alec’s hair. It’s turning slightly wet from the moisture, and the ends are curling to whatever direction they want. 

“Yeah,” Alec says, sighing softly. “It does.”

They stay in comfortable silence after that. The smell of sandalwood is strong in the room but being as close as Magnus is to Alec’s hair, the smell of smoke still filters thought to his nose. Magnus lets go of one of Alec’s hands and lifts his hand above the water, moving it in a complex pattern that leaves behind blue sparks. After that, both of their hairs are clean and Magnus’ face is free of the smudged makeup. 

Alec laughs as he feels that his hair is wet and falling to his forehead.

“Magnus we are in a bath,” he says between chuckles. “Did you need to use magic when we could have washed the hair in a normal way?”

“Would it be too selfish to say that I didn’t want you to move?” Magnus says, his words flirting but his tone soft.

“No,” Alec says, equally softly. “It’s not selfish.”

Alec’s hand finds Magnus’ that’s fallen back to the water and he lifts it to his lips, as if as a thank you for the gesture of magic. The action warms Magnus more than the water in the tub.

“Thank you,” he says. “And thank you for what you did at that house.”

It’s Magnus’ time to tense up. He had managed to put that to the back of his mind for now but Alec’s words bring it all to the front of his mind - the destruction Alec and Isabelle saw him cause and the memories that were brought on by it.

“I burned a house down, it isn’t like I did something complicated,” Magnus tries to deflect.

“You did it safely,” Alec points out. “We needed a warlock for that, otherwise we could have burned down the whole neighborhood.”

Magnus winces at that and he’s happy his face is hidden from Alec’s eyes. There was a time when he didn’t worry about the fire spreading, the demon who taught him the spell never teaching how to keep people safe. That wasn’t the goal back then. It’s quiet for a while after that, until Magnus voices his question. He doesn’t mean to, doesn’t want Alec to know about the insecurity that’s gnawing him, but is hopeless to try to stop the words from escaping.

“It doesn’t bother you?”

Alec moves from Magnus’ embrace and turns around in the tub so he’s facing Magnus properly. Magnus feels exposed, and it has to do with more than just his current state of undress.

Alec looks at him like he truly doesn’t understand what Magnus means.

“What should bother me?”

Magnus sighs before he replies, “The reminder of my heritage. A taste of the destruction I’m capable of causing.”

“You did the right thing today,” Alec reminds him, and it’s an easy way out but there’s a part of Magnus that wants to be honest with Alec. Partly because he trusts the Shadowhunter, more than he should so early on in their relationship. And partly because if he’s going to scare Alec away, he wants it to happen now rather than later, when he’s gotten comfortable with the idea that Alec is there to stay.

“I haven’t always,” Magnus says, and he knows the look in his eyes in challenging. There’s no sugarcoating it, he’s done horrible things in his past and he wants Alec to know that. He doesn’t want him to imagine that Magnus has always been as helpful as he’s been the past weeks they’ve known each other. He needs him to know the truth, doesn’t want Alec to develope feelings for a version of Magnus he thinks he knows.

Alec studies Magnus for a moment before he speaks. When he does, he reaches for Magnus’ hand and brings it to his own chest.

“I haven’t always done the right thing either,” Alec says, and Magnus is about to interrupt, to say that it’s not the same, but Alec doesn’t give him a chance. “Everyone has regrets but learning from them makes us better people. I don’t know what yours are and you don’t need to tell me. But I know in my heart that the person you are now wouldn’t hurt anyone not deserving of it. You have so much power, Magnus Bane, and you choose to use it for good. What you did today was good. It won’t scare me away.”

Magnus loses his breath at Alec’s last words that hit the mark spot on. He forgets how to draw in more air as Alec takes his other hand and lifts it to his lips, pressing a soft kiss to each fingertip before leaving one to Magnus’ palm, his eyes closed as he leaves his lips there for a moment and simply breathes.

Magnus is unable to look away. His eyes sting at the flood of emotions brought on by Alec’s words and his lips so near where most of his magic resides. Alec is doing a good job proving Magnus that he’s not afraid of his powers, and it’s lifting a heavy weight from Magnus’ shoulders. 

Alec moves the hand to his cheek and Magnus blinks fast when Alec opens his eyes and looks at him. 

“Thank you,” he says, looking Magnus right in the eyes. “For what you did tonight.”

Magnus draws in a shaky breath and leans closer to kiss Alec, one of his hands staying on the cheek while the other slides to Alec’s shoulder to draw him in.

“Thank you, Alexander,” he says when their lips part. He knows he doesn’t need to specify when Alec nods, their foreheads bumping together because of how close they are to each other.

“Always,” Alec replies, as if he’s willing to tackle all Magnus’ insecurities that might arise in the future. And looking at the man in front of him, Magnus has no doubt that he would.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me from [tumblr](https://sugarandspace.tumblr.com) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/sugarandspace_)!


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